The Vatican is the same organization that does not allow women to be priest or hold any significant role in the organization. They still do not approve of any form of contraception, so to say they are slow to move on major issues is an understatement.
On the other hand they are playing a very significant, meaningful and speedy role in the entire UFO/Extraterrestrial Disclosure process.
In an interview in 2008 entitled "Aliens Are My Brother", granted to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Father Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, stated: "In my opinion this possibility (of life on other planets) exists"; "intelligent beings, created by God may exist in outer space" and "some aliens could even be free from original sin" concluding "there could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator"
In 2009, Lachezar Filipov, deputy director of the Space Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said that even the seat of the Catholic church, the Vatican, had agreed that aliens existed.
In 2010, The Pope's astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, said intelligent aliens may be living among the stars and are likely to have souls.
The late prelate of the Congregation for the Evangelization, of Peoples Corrado Balducci, a theologian of the Roman Curia and a good friend of Pope Benedict XVI, perhaps most clearly spoke out about the existence of extraterrestrials. Balducci, a long time exorcist was on Italian National TV many times stating that "Aliens are real" and should not be mistaken for "demons". (more on Father Balducci below)
The Vatican continues to hold conferences, meetings and as late as March 2014 to discuss the extraterrestrial life in the universe.
The late Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a theologian member of the Vatican Curia, the governing body, and highly placed Vatican official who is close to the Pope has been on Italian Television, no less than five times stating that extraterrestrial contact is a real phenomena. Balducci provided an analysis of extraterrestrials that he feels is consistent with the Catholic Church's understanding of theology. Monsignor Balducci emphasizes that extraterrestrial encounters "are not demonic, they are not due to psychological impairment, they are not a case of entity attachment, but these encounters deserve to be studied carefully." Since Monsignor Balducci is a demonology expert and consultant to the Vatican , and since the Catholic Church has historically demonized many new phenomena that were poorly understood, his stating that the Church does not censure these encounters is all the more remarkable.
This is a major issue within the Catholic Church and the Vatican shows not signs of backing down. They seem extremely motivated to prepare mankind for imminent UFO/Alien Disclosure.
It makes no sense to speculate when this may occur but we can get a good sense of how close we are getting by watching the rhetoric heat up in Rome.
